In the upcoming superhero movie based on DC Comics, “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Ben Affleck will take on the role of Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader, which is quite an unenviable and daunting task considering the very memorable take of Christian Bale in The Dark Knight trilogy under the meticulous helming of Christopher Nolan just a few years ago.
Many prime actors have taken on the Batman role before Christian Bale including Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney. But none can compare to the realism of The Dark Knight trilogy by Christopher Nolan, which really gave Batman more credibility as a true-blue superhero.
So when Director Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck were about to film “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” they wanted the Caped Crusader to be more like the persona in The Dark Knight trilogy.
However, their challenge is to be different and unique. They found a way into the character by aging the superhero.
Thus, in the upcoming movie, due to hit theaters on March 25, 2016, Ben Affleck shall take on an aging Batman / Bruce Wayne and that the character shall no longer focus about the murder of his parents and seek vengeance against criminal elements in the city.
Instead, Affleck’s Batman will be a person who had been through that experience already for many years and was kind of burnt out and already asking himself what is the point of it all because he is obviously going through an existential crisis, details Collider.
Forging new territory
As a great actor that he is, Affleck saw Bruce Wayne as the bigger opportunity to forge new territory. He says that one cannot really play Batman because Batman is different things to many people.
Some people work on really protecting the mythology of Batman. But for Bruce Wayne, he really had to bring something distinct, new, and different to the table.
As for Henry Cavill’s Superman, his character is an alien and inherently stronger than Batman but he will eventually lose the epic battle with Batman because he compared his character to a doting father playing sports with a bunch of kids.
He just does not want to hurt his opponent that much because as a dad, he would not go all-out against the kids because he will just end up smashing them around.
He explained that Superman’s idea in the movie is to continue to have fun in doing what he does without hurting anybody. The Man of Steel, he said, is like someone who is being very careful about where his knees and elbows are going.
Marvel’s competition
With the upcoming showing of “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Marvel’s grasp on the superhero world in cinemas will finally get a serious challenge this year.
In addition to “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Warner Bros has unveiled its plan to build the DC cinematic universe starting this year along with “Suicide Squad,” another big title based on the legendary DC Comics characters.
The “Suicide Squad” of anti-hero ensemble features Jared Leto’s much-talked about The Joker, Will Smith’s Deadshot, Margot Robbie’s bat-wielding make-up clad madwoman Harley Quinn, and several others. It is sure to rattle Marvel’s once comfortable position in superhero films too, notes USA Today.
In a report last month, several European websites have already started selling tickets for the “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” movie.
One of those sites is based in Germany, which even went out of its way to reveal the total running time for the upcoming Warner Bros movie.
The German site selling the tickets to the widely anticipated movie says that the film will run for 151 minutes or about two hours and 31 minutes.
While Warner Bros has yet to confirm the running time of “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” assuming the German site’s claim is true, the movie will be eight minutes longer than the “Man of Steel,” which had a running time of 143 minutes.
“Man of Steel” was released in 2013 and it served as the prelude to “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” In fact, the movies have the same director in Zack Snyder and most of the actors in the first film are back in the upcoming movie.
Film analysts have mentioned however that for some reasons, movies can sometimes have different running times in European countries than they do in the US.